cables supporting it were going to snap and it would come crashing down to the street. >> the window washers are wearing safety harnesses, so presumably if the scaffold falls, the men would be left hanging from the top of the building. that's probably little comfort to them as the scaffold flies through the air thrashing violently. it's already plummeted about 15 feet and shards of glass from the building's windows are raining down on the street. >> to get a visual of this. you arrive on scene, you see a little bit of glass. midway through the incident it looks like an armageddon, a war zone down there. >> firefighters immediately cordon off the area. >> you had a wild, swinging arc of the scaffolding. looked like a locomotive in between the buildings. the obvious question was someone's going to get seriously hurt and someone could die. something had to be done quickly. >> crews rush inside the building, hoping they can catch the scaffold the next time it hits. >> we started running down the hallway. i was in the lead.